


Keeps Me Up All Night

by 2towels



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Pining Keith (Voltron), Thirsty Keith, all other Voltron cast has a mention casually, cuddles and snuggles, really the hurt takes a while because it has nothing to do with Keith i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 05:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13943127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2towels/pseuds/2towels
Summary: “I didn’t know you had nightmares.” Keith blurted when he recognized the soft tilt at the corners of Lance’s mouth, not allowing himself to coast on the momentum of not having said something stupid just once.The frown returned, and all Lance said was, “Not exactly newsworthy.” He shrugged while he sipped his water, and when he closed his eyes a little languidly Keith could only think that he looked very, very tired.=Five times Lance couldn't sleep, and one time he couldAlternatively: Five times Keith was parched, and one time he was just thirsty





	Keeps Me Up All Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mmeme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmeme/gifts).



> I finished this because i miss my girlfriend shoutout to anyone who misses their girlfriend!!!
> 
> Title is from [Pentatonix' "Can't Sleep Love" because it's ironic!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFCxiKXtKTI)
> 
> I made Keith stay hydrated in every section of this fic so every Keith stan is welcome now he's just a fraction less likely to die

                Keith would argue that he had a sense for when things were amiss. While his personal intuition had some addressing to take care of according to Shiro, his ability to see problems outside of his own personal bubble was beyond standard. It was half the reason he had ended up a paladin of Voltron at all, if he had to say so. He would have never looked deep into Shiro’s “pilot error,” would have never explored the desert after sensing the strange energy there, would have never learned of the arrival of Shiro and the discovery of the blue lion, and he definitely would have never stumbled into the observation deck half-asleep—even though he distinctly knew he was only going to get a glass of water at first—to find the blue paladin sitting on the edge of Allura’s helm, staring up at a complicated map of billions upon trillions of stars, swiping his hand lazily to make them scroll by.

                “Lance?” Keith mumbled, clearing his throat and swearing to himself over his lingering tire. It wasn’t like him to be lax even just minutes after waking up. Lance seemed to hear him at least, jumping and tilting his head back all the way to see Keith upside-down. “What are you doing?”

                It probably sounded harsh, if Lance’s terse frown were anything to go by, but Keith was nothing if not incidentally so, and he moved into the room to get a better look at all the swirling lights. Lance said nothing for a moment while he moved, and Keith was sure he was going to pout instead of answering, but when he tilted his head forward again and swiped his hand to spin the galaxies, he granted, “I couldn’t sleep.”

                “Doesn’t really look like you’re trying.” Keith mentioned, attempting a good nature as he sat down near but not too near Lance on the platform, feeling a little dizzy at the whipping points and streaks that represented the entirety of the universe around them.

                Lance spared him a glance as he sat, looking a little dimmed from his usual but in no immediate distress. “Do you know what a person trying to sleep actually looks like, mullet? Did they teach you that in school? Did you ace that final exam?” His tone was acidic and Keith didn’t hold back his confused blink, furrowing his brows in response. “Never mind, oh man.”

                “Uh.” Keith managed, “I probably would have passed it. They would probably have to teach it with diagrams or videos. They’re easy to memorize.” He knew it wasn’t the actual issue to address there but it felt safer to broach that section of the equation first. “All I’m saying is you look wide awake.”

                For one hot second Lance muttered something completely indistinguishable, but then he stopped the stars spinning and zoomed in on a cluster of galaxies slowly. “I stopped trying a while ago.” He said softly, not seeming concerned despite the complexity Keith felt to the words. His hands stilled over a galaxy turning slowly, but instead of zooming into it more he took a deep breath and flicked his wrist to spin them around again. With a brief shake of his head, Lance lowered himself onto his back on the platform and folded his hands behind his head as a cushion.

                When Keith turned to watch him, he couldn’t pretend to be subtle about the motion. Lance kept his wide-awake eyes trained directly above him at the apex of the map, and the little flecks and smudges of light were reflected perfectly in his gaze. Without thinking, Keith blurted, “You should go train.” To his dismay Lance’s eyes immediately closed and he seemed to take a ragged, aggravated breath at the suggestion while he hid away his gaze. “That’s what I do when I can’t sleep.”

                “So why aren’t you doing that now?” Lance wondered, puffing his cheeks and crossing his legs at the knee. He looked relaxed enough for somebody who was having trouble sleeping, but Lance always looked relax, really.

                Fleetingly, Keith remembered that he didn’t always have the pleasure of being Lance’s friend. They had a long and good run with Voltron so far, and they were working together better than ever, but there was something that blocked them sometimes from one another neither could voice or explain. An unsaid sever in their connection if pressed the wrong way. Maybe tonight was one of those nights. Shiro had called it “emotional constipation” and said it was a “teenager thing” when Keith had mentioned it casually once. “I was going to get water.” Keith said curtly, turning away to catch the stars beginning to slow in their scrolling.

                “Have fun.” Lance bit out, turning onto his side away from Keith’s back and staying put. Keith barely muted a “What’s your problem?” at the tip of his tongue. Instead, as the universe slowed before his eyes, he took in the ever-moving points and diagrams and slowly turned the map in search of something always familiar to him. It took some finagling to find the milky way from such a perspective, but when he zoomed in correctly and pinpointed the third planet from the Sun he admired the way the Altean systems somehow amplified its existence by their unique lighting and mapping features. When he turned back to his on-again off-again partner, Lance was still turned away from him petulantly, and Keith gave himself the opportunity to heave a deep breath before he left the map and pouting boy and room entirely. His throat was still dry and he had better things to do if Lance was too busy pouting to talk about anything, but he couldn’t help but grimace at the clench deep in his gut as soon as the doors closed behind him, the hallway not being nearly as illuminated as the beautiful infinity that was the observation deck.

                On the other side of the door, Lance glanced up when Keith’s footprints ceased and found an empty room to greet him. He gave himself a deep breath at the predicament, knowing he couldn’t leave for a good five minutes lest it look like he was _following_ Keith or anything but not feeling inclined to do much of anything anyway. When he turned to the spot where Keith had sat, sitting up again, he met the planet Earth at his direct eye line, and knew the zoom was intentional.

* * *

                The next time Keith found himself wandering for a glass of water is not without a Lance occurrence, either. With the glass still in his hand as he rounded a corner he found Lance standing (like any spook or spectral) in the center of the hallway, halfway to where Keith stood, looking pale and gaunt.

                His bright eyes hardened at the sight of Keith, but the red paladin didn’t miss the red rim on his waterline or the almost shuddering breath he took in despite the distance. “Hey.” Lance said, voice clearly shaky.

                “Hey.” Keith said, faltering only a moment before continuing to walk. “Are you cold?” He hated his mouth, and knew Lance wasn’t cold. “You look like you’re shivering—or like you’ve seen a ghost, I guess.”

                Lance groaned, “Don’t.” His hand stretched out towards Keith, and by some muscle memory he hadn’t known he’d acquired the thirsty boy shrugged off his robe and handed it to Lance to aid his warming. He hated wearing it anyway and wanted to be rid of the habit, but peer pressure and mockery from his team had brought it on his wardrobe, and he wasn’t going to be the only paladin who didn’t wear pajamas if they were going to make _such_ a big deal out of it.

                “Can’t sleep?” Keith asked, sipping his water as loudly as possible while he drank in Lance tying the red sash around his trim waist.

                Lance nodded as they started walking again, and Keith could have wondered why Lance was joining him when he was headed in a different direction originally but he was distracted by the stiffness to all of Lance’s movements instead. The way his arms were tucked underneath one another tightly and the way his shoulders bunched around his bowed head screamed trouble, and Keith’s conscious screamed, too.

                “Does this happen a lot?” Two nights without sleep in a week wasn’t terribly bad, Keith could do much better, but it was enough to wonder about if it was going to affect their team.

                “No.” Lance answered immediately, seeming defensive. Keith realized belatedly that his concern might be misplaced if they were going to be friends, and Lance might have picked up on that, but it was a fair thing to have the good of the team in mind above all else. “I just get restless.” The explanation seemed flimsy, but Lance’s lips seemed tightly sealed after the fact.

                Keith regarded him quietly as they walked towards their hall of quarters. Every few paces, his eyelids would droop and he would find the time to turn a regular blink into a lethargic, intentional one, but he would shake it off and keep on. “You don’t look like you can’t sleep.” The paler skin was brought to Keith’s attention again at him voicing his thoughts, and he idly wondered if he should mention to Coran that Lance might be sick. “If you’re restless you should try the training deck.” He was very aware he had mentioned that last time.

                “Maybe one of these nights.” Lance grit out, shuffling a half step forward and turning his face from Keith’s vision a little unfairly. “I get plenty of beauty sleep enough to cover the nights I can’t, it’s only natural I’d still be radiant even when I say I’m exhausted.”

                He didn’t seem radiant tonight, but Keith knew very well what radiance looked like on Lance and knew if he mentioned the fact he would not see it for a very long time, so he kept his lips sealed on the matter. Instead of comment, he finished off his glass of water in two long gulps, sighing when it was gone. Lance hummed but did not turn back.

                They reached their doors, side by side, and Keith caught the front of Lance again, looking up into the deep blue eyes that looked ready to moisten again. He wracked his brain for something more important to say regarding Lance’s obvious state than a training suggestion, but instead he felt the cool glass against his bare palm and said, “Uh. I have to take this back?”

                Lance looked down at the glass Keith offered strangely between the two of them, and turned around with a soft _tsk_ as they began shuffling down the hall they came from again. Distracted, they took a few wrong turns to and from the kitchen, but an hour of walking with one another in comfortable quiet did neither of them harm.

* * *

                “Why are you always so thirsty at night?” Lance’s voice assaulted Keith as soon as he entered the kitchen, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes and cursing himself for being so unprepared.

                Vision clear, he regarded the blue paladin carefully. “Sometimes I get a weird feeling at night. I feel like I need to make rounds or something.” He grumbled after a minute, seeing no use in lying. Him and Lance had been better lately, he seemed a little less antagonistic and a little more concerningly tired but Keith would take whatever peace between them he could.

                He was poised at the end of the long island counter in the kitchen, legs swinging as he scraped at a bowl of what must have been food goo. It seemed like he hadn’t even looked up to notice Keith’s arrival, and Keith couldn’t help his impressed stare. Simply, almost quietly and without any of the malice Keith feared would reach his tone, Lance said, “Oh. Coran does that sometimes. It’s been months since the last time you obsessively wandered the castle, though.”

                Keith kept his eyes on Lance as he reached for a glass in the sliding cabinets, but he still paused when the other boy’s words registered. “Obsessively wandered the castle?” Not only was Keith prepared to feign indifference to this but he was prepared to defend his need to keep his perimeter safe just like all of them should be ready to do. Excuse him for being prepared, excuse him for wanting them all to survive in the event of invaders. Excuse him for wanting to check for ghosts in forbidden corridors sometimes because there was something suspicious about the way Allura avoided certain areas of the castle and Lance really did look haunted sometimes when he came back from hours of being missing in presumed solitude.

                “Yeah.” Lance said, hopping off the counter and thrusting his bowl under the sink to rinse it off. It struck Keith as strangely considerate even though all the dish washing was done by a very advanced Altean machine and Lance didn’t seem like the type to rinse his dishes out in general, but Keith didn’t comment. “It’s like a long-winded nervous tick of yours, I guess. I get it.” Silently, Lance’s hand reached out to pluck the glass Keith had retrieved from his own hands, running it under the stream of water to fill it and hand it back. The water shut off automatically when there was nothing left under the spout.

                “It’s not a _tick_.” Keith found himself huffing, grabbing the glass and slurping a few ounces down immediately. Lance’s nose wrinkled but he said nothing. “I just like to check stuff out sometimes.”

                While Lance resumed his position on the counter, he hummed, seemingly content to hang out in the overly-lit space no matter the time of night. “Sometimes is just super convenient when it’s right after the rest of us have gone to our rooms and we’re alone with our thoughts.” He sounded like he was joking, but he added much softer, “I told you, I get it.”

                Keith felt like he didn’t, but he didn’t say anything in favor of swallowing more water to drown whatever fluttery thing was happening in his stomach. “Why are you up?” He should train, Keith thought to say, but stopped himself after finally learning from the last two failures of the simple and passive suggestion Lance had received poorly.

                “Couldn’t sleep.” Lance’s standard reply was unsurprising, but he looked at the ceiling and took an almost muted deep breath after the admission, and that was a little more new.

                Almost hesitantly, Keith took a seat on a stool at the island, facing Lance’s side. “You’ll never get tired in a room this bright, so.” As soon as the words left his mouth he knew he should probably stop pointing out obvious things to Lance, as it never got him far, but it was so much easier than trying to figure out anything else swirling inside his mind that didn’t come with clear instructions.

                As predicted, Lance’s gaze grew annoyed, but he didn’t direct it downward again or anywhere near Keith, preferring to keep it cast on a spot at the ceiling with almost admirable determination. “I’m not really trying.” That was another unsurprising answer, but the sound of it churned a new wave of unease in Keith’s stomach that was not quelled by drowning himself in half of his water glass via obnoxious gulping. “Holy crow, why do you drink everything so loud?” Lance’s voice didn’t sound like it was awfully annoyed despite the way he looked and slapped his hands over his face, so Keith wasn’t really concerned enough to answer or rise to what may have been bait, but Lance continued, “It’s like you have to take deep breaths while you’re trying to hydrate, like you don’t trust yourself not to drown.”

                “Maybe I don’t.” Keith tried, feeling like it was a tame enough response to get a laugh out of his team member. He was not disappointed, and Lance slid back elegantly to lay over the top of the counter and slip his arms over his face while he left his loud, laughing mouth exposed. Keith finished his glass but stayed put.

* * *

                The watches were usually unofficial and the turn-taking wasn’t usually fair, but when one of them were stuck in a glass tube, the rest tended to make sure at least one body was in the room to look at the healing sarcophagus anxiously. It was borderline unhealthy, and Shiro complained every time about the habit, but he did nothing to break the passing of the insomnia torch from team member to team member until they all were healed and ready emotionally and physically to head back into the fray with their teeth bared.

                Keith felt like he wouldn’t be able to bare his teeth for a while. Staring at the coffin of life at the other end of the room was always jarring whenever somebody was inside, and maybe it was the lack of sleep, but something about the brightest color on their team being encased in it sent shocks of anger that could only dissipate into nausea rather than escalating into rage, and Hunk’s still form was the only real haunting image Keith had come across in his castle explorations. He was long range, and he was happy and scared like the rest of them, and he should never have to feel the lethargic pull of forced healing and the tenseness of a defensive body reacting subconsciously. Still, Hunk was hurt, and of course he would be healed but the scar of his injury was fresh and frightening.

                Keith should have expected it when the automatic doors slid open behind him, being hours deep into an unofficial shift of watching, but he was still tense, and felt himself clutch at his tucked ankle as he glared at the floor in thought. If it were Shiro, he would be hard pressed to deny the man going back to his own room to rest, but anyone else he could easily dissuade from budging him. He didn’t expect an understanding tone, though, nor one that seemed more frustrated than even Keith himself, if not better contained.

                “Has Coran come by again, yet?” Lance’s voice was rough and he arrived with two glasses of water, one set immediately by Keith’s still-outstretched leg. Keith had the decency to shake his head while he glanced at the glass, and Lance took a near muted sip of the other clutched in his hand. “Probably soon, then. I know Allura’s still going to be sleeping for a while, the mice are still guarding her door. Wouldn’t even let me knock.” His voice was almost distraught, but it was clear he was trying to keep himself threaded together.

                Keith swallowed, noticed he was thirsty, and watched the still glass of water by him rather than look back up at Hunk. “She has a service meeting with Shiro in the morning for castle repairs since Coran will be monitoring him.” He didn’t have to say who, and he could hear Lance taking more gulps of water. “She’s stressed enough as it is. Probably didn’t want to have the meeting go bad on top of that.”

                “Yeah.” Lance said softly. He took a deep breath beside Keith, and then another, and then a much shakier one before the red paladin had the foresight to glance over fully and see rivers of wetness pouring down his companion’s cheeks. Stricken, Keith could only watch as Lance stared dead ahead while his tears ran profusely. He continued speaking, however, voice only betraying the softest quivers in his composure. “I get it. She’ll probably stop by before to see how things are going anyway. Feels weird to leave him all night, though.” Keith wondered privately if he would have noticed Lance crying at all if he hadn’t glanced up.

                Involuntarily, Keith gripped his ankle even harder, feeling it tingle with the tell-tale signs of falling asleep. “We’re not. We’re right here.” It was hard to look away, but Keith managed, picking up his glass with his free hand and gulping down the first half of it like it was required of him. Maybe it was, he didn’t know what Lance’s standards for him were right now.

                “He has to be in there so long, though.” Lance gave a shuddering little hiccup and Keith near slammed the glass of water back down, closer to Lance’s side than his own so he could take it. When he glanced up to meet his companion’s face again, he found Lance bowed over, hands over his face while his back shook. “I don’t know what to do without Hunk.” It was raw and honest and while Keith understood and felt another pang of dissolving anger run through him at the expression, he wasn’t fully enlightened to Lance’s sentiment.

                “That’s—” His voice seemed to crack just the slightest and Keith forced himself to press on, “That’s something you never have to know, though. Maybe not until we’re shriveled up and grey, I guess. You and him are going to be fine.”

                Lance’s back shook harder, and Keith thought he had somehow ruined even the slightest form of comfort he could give, but the blue paladin only cried, “What about you, then, samurai? What about Pidge and Shiro and Allura and Coran?”

                “They’ll be fine. You have to believe that.” Keith said blindly, reciting what he often told himself to push down any lingering insecurity for their safeties.

                “You.” Lance reiterated, another stray hiccup cutting through him. Keith tried to ignore it and glance back towards Hunk’s blue-lit beneficial prison, but Lance lowered his damp hands into his lap and let out a soft and pathetic sniffle. The tears didn’t cease, but he seemed less concerned with covering them because the ruse was far beyond over. He stared down at his hands, seeming stricken at the silence, and Keith could feel his breaths beginning to match his own rasps.

                It was when Lance turned to him, eyes bright through the wetness and piercing as ever despite their terror, that Keith gave in to the exhaustion creeping through the roots of his being and slumped his head forward, his body tilting to its side, and he rested gently against Lance’s shaking form. It’s what Hunk would do, what any of them would do, and even Keith who had maybe the smallest hundredth of experience in comforting as any other person on the castle-ship was unable to resist himself as he lifted his arms and drew Lance into his slumping, grip strong around the lanky boy. He was in his pajamas, but he seemed like he had put them on haphazardly because his robe wasn’t even around him proper. Keith admired that, having only been able to take off half his armor before he plopped in front of Hunk’s living coffin for the night, but feeling Lance so close in only the thin layers of his pajamas and Keith’s bodysuit made the blue paladin’s sharp angles and shuddering all the more obvious in Keith’s arms.

                “I don’t want to lose any of you.” Lance said with conviction, burying his face into Keith’s neck and spreading his tears there mercilessly. His thin fingers tried to find give for a grip in the tight fabric of Keith’s suit with no luck, and instead settled tightly on Keith’s free shoulder and waist rather than continue his pawing around.

                “You’re not going to.” Keith growled, fisting the robe in his fingers and readjusting his arms so he could get handfuls of pajama shirt instead. “Not even me.”

                Lance hiccuped again and it felt disgusting against Keith’s neck while also being annoyingly tickling. “You don’t know that.” He said petulantly, voice still wet but shaking body calming. “I can’t do this.” He sounded convinced of himself.

                “Do what?” Keith asked simply, muffling his voice in Lance’s collarbone while he was so close, “We’re all here with you. Isn’t it better that we have to be healed sometimes rather than to get cocky?”

                Keith’s infallible ability to know when something was amiss did not fail him, and as soon as the words poured out of his mouth and Lance stiffened in every sense of the word, he knew he had said the wrong thing. “Do you think hubris would be worse than this?” His fingers tightened in his false grip and the half glass of water that was squished between their thighs still sloshed as Lance leaned back, away, and escaped from Keith’s grip. They stayed connected at his firm hands, though Keith dropped his as more of a habit of self-preservation than anything. “Do you think,” He repeated, “It would be worse for us to have big heads than to have Hunk have to freeze in a healing pod?” As if Keith had slapped him, Lance’s head whipped towards the blue beacon across the room and he stood in a hurry, pacing over there.

                “That’s not what I’m saying.” Keith emphasized hurriedly, feeling himself fray at the edges while he stood to follow after Lance. “I’m just—we’re all fine. We could be worse and we could be better, but we’re fine. Hunk is going to heal.” Closer to the pod, washed so brightly in blue light with only Lance’s form to shadow it slightly, Keith choked on his words, gazing up at the calm and resting face of the yellow paladin. He felt his tongue run dry and thought about the glasses left behind, but instead of backpedaling from what he started, he watched as Lance rested two gentle hands onto the surface of the glowing confines, avoiding any of the touch-sensitive monitors and system reports that logged Hunk’s healing in a ten-thousand-year-old language.

                Keith had kept his distance for a reason. It was hard to justify anything—even the most rational explanations for their involvement in an ancient war for the galaxy they hadn’t heard of more than a year prior—with the disturbing serenity that was Hunk’s resting face looming. No snores echoed through the room, no snuffles or grunts to indicate just slumber, and it made seeing their kindest member on the team in such a predicament all the more horrifying.

                “He shouldn’t have to get hurt in the first place.” Lance choked, taking a deep breath and holding it in his shoulders, in his lungs. His forehead touched the glass of the attenuating device slowly, and Keith could see he was still crying thickly, tears running onto the space between feet at an almost rapid pace as they dripped off of his face. “I hate this.” There was venom unlike him in his voice, but Keith understood.

                “We’re all going to be fine, Lance. You know that better than anyone. You’re always the one who says it.” Keith swallowed down the lump in his throat, feeling his own eyes prick with wetness when Lance sniffled again.

                The breath seemed to finally leave Lance’s body, and he deflated with it in a soft ease of all his body’s tension. “We need to take better care of each other. How could we let Hunk get hurt? He wasn’t even—He…” Lance’s voice was high and reedy as he tapered off, losing himself, and Keith, against every one of his instincts to continue following Lance, stepped back.

                “You can go.” Lance said the second the steps of his armor echoed through the quiet room. “I’ll watch for a little while. Go shower, you smell.” There was still no control to his inflection, and he still sounded desperate and broken, but Keith knew a dismissal when he saw one, and backed away again.

                When he had crossed the room, Keith’s biggest mistake was turning back over his shoulder before the doors closed. Though it was only a moment, he absorbed the sight of Lance, crumpled beside the healing pod with his head tucked deep into his knees and shaking with his silent sobs, with nothing short of reserved shock. It was a long and quiet moment in the hallway where he reflected on his decision before he turned and left finally, though his sense for the awry was haywire, and the rest he found afterwards was fitful and restless.

* * *

                Keith entered the healing chambers not three hours later, expecting Pidge to have made her way there already and wanting to shoo off whoever was there to post before Shiro woke up to take his place and he could go to his personal morning training in peace. What he did not expect when the doors parted was Lance curled atop his bunched-up robe, writhing and grasping with thin and frantic fingers at the air all around him. Gasps tore through his mouth between little grunts, as if he were trying to expel something from within him, and the bits of broken words that made it past these distressing sounds had no content to them.

                “Lance?” Keith found himself saying quietly, confused and more than a little stricken. The blue paladin keened, elbow jutting into the floor in the fight of his life, and he continued in his mess. Keith’s feet (quiet in just his soft-soled boots rather than the heavy steps of his armor) carried him across the room without consent, and the scene from a foot away was more disturbing. Lance’s face was screwed up in agony, it seemed, and his chest rose and fell with each breath that seemed to rip from his lungs forcefully.

                Keith called his name again, in a breath of a whisper, as he lowered himself to his knees beside his team member slowly. He didn’t think he had ever been faced with another sleeping person aside from the stray in the Garrison lounges, let alone one that was struck with a nightmare, and Keith felt useless. Afraid. Empathetic.

                He was no stranger to nightmares himself. Before his delving into his Galra heritage he had been plagued with them near every night, and he knew the toll it could take on a person’s habits, let alone their view around themselves. Lance suffered just as much as all of them and bared the weight twice as much on insistence. He took burdens unspoken when nobody prompted them to be passed and he supported the brunt of the team over-foot in every battle, Hunk at his side. Hunk in his pod. Keith knew he should have noticed, and wondered who else of them, Shiro aside, might be so horrified and affected so often.

                It was when Keith reached forward gently, aiming to jostle Lance’s shaking shoulder just in the slightest to rouse him, that Lance took it upon himself to slap his hand onto the cold floor below him, shooting forward and letting out half of a scream that tapered as he woke.

                He seemed to shrivel into a ball as soon as his voice was gone, not noticing or acknowledging Keith or his outstretched hand just inches from his side. His hands gripped at his drawn knees, white with pressure at the joints and seeming like they were trying to steel the rest of him. He drew his breaths in carefully, timed in a way Keith could recognize but didn’t think to count.

                “Lance.” Keith said one last time, his hand back-pedaling just the briefest of centimeters away as the blue paladin whipped his wet face around and backed up clumsily. Keith swallowed when Lance only stared. “Are you okay?”

                Lance guffawed to break the following silence, eyes still wet and chest still heaving. “Wha— _No_.” He was smiling through the strange laugh and took in the space around him with reserved panic. “How long has it been?”

                “A few hours.” The red paladin replied carefully, standing much less slowly than he had approached the entirety of the situation and backing up without letting his eyes leave Lance’s. When he felt near, he threw his arm out behind him and rummaged around the medical shelves Coran worked from. “Do you want to talk about it?”

                Lance shook his head, and Keith noted the stiffness slowly leaving his form. “No.” Lance admitted while Keith secured two water pouches in his blind hand and approached him again. “Why are you back already? Your hair barely looks dry.”

                Giving him the benefit of the night’s events, Keith ignored the comment about his bone-dry hair and gently held out the drink to the other boy when he was near enough. The hands that had so tightly gripped the air and slapped so soundly against the floor yet so tenderly touched the surface of Hunk’s lively prison and so passionately gripped the fabric of the red paladin’s flight suit only fluttered then, surrounding the drink offered before gingerly accepting it. Keith kept all his motions slow while he sat beside Lance despite the itch underneath his skin to jump into action, to thrust forward at any threat despite knowing there was nothing tangible to fight to prevent his night terrors.

                “You thirsty again?” Lance asked, voice wobblier than even when he had woken up just moments prior. Keith wasn’t sure if he could watch him cry again, so he nodded and fiddled with the straw of the pouch to keep his eyes down. Still, in his peripheral he caught shaking, fumbling hands do the same with a tenseness. He probably had to crack each bone in his hand to be rid of the stiffness, as is what Keith would do immediately, but it was a stupid thought and the red paladin was finally able to restrain one from escaping his mouth. Instead, he nodded along, knowing Lance was joking and swallowing as loud as possible when the first drops of water touched his tongue. Lance’s hands paused and when Keith allowed himself another glance up, he saw the wrinkle of the other’s nose.

                “I didn’t know you had nightmares.” Keith blurted when he recognized the soft tilt at the corners of Lance’s mouth, not allowing himself to coast on the momentum of not having said something stupid just once.

                The frown returned, and all Lance said was, “Not exactly newsworthy.” He shrugged while he sipped his water, and when he closed his eyes a little languidly Keith could only think that he looked very, very tired.

                “You can head to your room, if you want. If that’ll help you sleep better.” Keith said awkwardly, knowing he didn’t have to give his permission but feeling Lance liked to be prompted for the more basic self-care normal people did automatically, like sleeping at night.

                Lance sucked all of his water down, shrinking the packet of air and liquid combined, before he decided to reply. He sounded calmer, but just as sad and defeated. “I don’t want to leave him.” His voice was quiet and careful, and the way his eyes remained half-lidded just to skirt around the floor around them gave Keith the distinct impression that his eyelashes were beautiful and he was going to avoid looking at Hunk.

                Unbidden, Keith felt his hand reach for one of Lance’s tense ones between them, drawing it closer and settling it on his own knee. “I’ll stay with you.” He said between obnoxious slurping sounds through his straw and near empty water packet. “Just go back to sleep, you look exhausted.”

                “If I…” Lance looked uncertain, eyes on their joined hands blatantly before he slid them closed.

                “I’ll be here.” Keith assured, knowing his fear.

                Lance seemed to swallow just as loud as Keith was mocked for before he agreed, looking up to Keith’s face as he tossed the water packet away from him. Keith followed suit, and Lance was leaning toward him as he glanced up again. “How do you want to…” Lance looked unsteady, unsure, for a moment, just a few breaths from Keith and squeezing his hand tightly, but in a fraction of a moment he leaned forward, smearing their lips together and using his free hand to draw around Keith’s waist unexpectedly. Keith, embarrassed to be caught off guard above all else, felt his breath hitch, but he pressed back against Lance for the small seconds they were connected.

                “I’m going to lay on your lap.” Lance announced very officially, only an inch from Keith’s face. He ducked forward quicker than Keith could react one more time, and their lips and noses squishing together quickly was even more of a surprise to him, though he wouldn’t admit the surprised exhale he let fan out against Lance’s face. As quick as it began, it ended, and Lance tucked himself tightly against Keith in half of a hug with their hands still holding one another just as quick before he unceremoniously shoved one of Keith’s crossed legs flat and dropped his head onto the meaty flesh of his thigh.

                In any other capacity, Keith was sure he would be pressed to feel embarrassed or annoyed. Looking down at Lance slipping his bright eyes closed, however, and feeling his breaths and the weight that kept him wound tight release calmly and evenly, Keith felt nothing but adoration for his companion. He used his free hand tentatively, delicately, to brush through the fringe at Lance’s crown when he was sure he was asleep, and the only sounds Lance released throughout his rest were the soft little pleased breaths he would slip at the stroke of Keith’s hand, heavenly and soft compared to the pained sounds Keith hoped he would be able to forget.

                Not long after, Shiro dropped by the chambers to check on Hunk and whoever was on watch, offering to relieve Keith automatically despite the fond smile when he saw the predicament the two were in. Keith only shook his head softly and smiled at his friend.

                Hours later, Hunk awoke surrounded by his team and family, and there was not a dry eye or an un-held hand on the ship.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. Hunk's fine! The whole team just loves him to death of course they can't stand to see him in the pods
> 
> Please consider: following me on [tumblr](https://2towels.tumblr.com/) to see more content and me spewing nonsense, which means a lot to me ♥
> 
> Thank you so much for any support!


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